TopSpot Shortlisted for US Search Awards

TopSpot Internet Marketing has been shortlisted at the US Search Agency Awards for the Best Large Integrated Search Agency, an award won three times between 2018 and 2021. This year, we are especially honored as we celebrate our 20^th anniversary.

“Just in awe of it all. You have nothing but gratitude for everyone and everything along the way.”

• TopSpot VP of Operations, Anita Valdez

Back in 2003, Clients had a simple question in terms of digital marketing—how can I get on Google? What was an easy sell then has evolved into a competitive space, but the goal is still simple. TopSpot provides integrated digital marketing services that focus on driving quality leads and new business opportunities to organizations large or small, and we do this by keeping things simple—we focus on the right searches that lead to the right traffic, and the right traffic drives quality leads and conversions. Not every data point from our various tools matters to Clients, and what every partnership does have in common is the desire to see success in the search landscape and to see the quality leads that result.

Over the past two decades we’ve redefined revenue by going beyond numbers and defining our success in terms of our client partner’s success—their ability to hire more, increase benefits, or expand facilities as well as grow their families, send children to college, and retire.

“It’s almost impossible to predict what’s going to happen in the next twenty years, but I do know that there’s always going to be a need for companies like TopSpot who truly care about the success of businesses and are willing to take time to ask the right questions and hire the right people even as the technology changes”.

• TopSpot Founder and President David Underwood

Founded with a Team of five, TopSpot now has 130+ Team Members and partners with over 800 businesses across the US and abroad, including the first Client acquired 20 years ago. Working with a variety of industries and business sizes, with a large percentage of B2B and industrial manufacturers as well as Fortune 500 companies, doctors, lawyers, and retailers. We are a Google Premier Partner, a Microsoft Select Channel Partner, and a member of the Google Analytics Certified Partner Program.

Being recognized as an integrated agency is a great honor as it is critical to our success as a strategic business partner to Clients. While SEO and PPC are different entities, their goals are the same—to bring qualified users to a website and increase conversions. Data from both sides can help shape keyword strategy. Clients using both services work with Customer Relationship Teams (CRT). CRT Clients have access to a group of skilled specialists with unique ideas and act as an extension of a Client’s team. As of August 2023, there are 15 teams. At the center of any integrated strategy is a company’s website, and our Team of dedicated project managers, developers and designers have launched over 1000.

Driving our integrated approach and content strategy is our B-SMART® Method, derived from 20 years of behavioral data. It is our framework for creating a full-funnel assistive strategy that identifies all digital areas of opportunity, from where to find potential customers to new business possibilities. By focusing on user intent in search, this method details ways potential customers search for products or services to drive more conversions than broader terms. This is especially important in paid search efforts where budgets must be spent strategically. 

For example, a business that sells air filtration units for large industrial spaces and applications uses the keyword “large air filtration system”. The consequence of this keyword is their ads and SEO content populates search results for residential air filtration units sold through major retailers like Amazon, a crowded space that is easy to get lost in. Plus, the results page is one that does not accurately reflect the product sold. Using “welding ventilation system” narrows the number of results populated but increases the quality traffic that includes buyers looking for that exact product for their large industrial or commercial facility.    

We use our propriety tool LOOP Analytics and CallRail for insights into the leads received by B-SMART’s efforts. TopSpot’s strategy ensures once those leads convert, they are more likely to become customers. The method also helps companies keep steady results during algorithm updates and aids in populating results from AI-generated search experiences.

The goals and initiatives highlighted in our awards application reflect TopSpot’s priority to Client partnerships. TopSpot created a proprietary tool for real-time logging of account work and strategic notes to allow for transparency and accountability between Teams and their Client partners. It shows how efforts directly tie back to budgets. We created an algorithm to measure account health scores based on results, interactions, and engagements logged. The tool allows busy Teams to prioritize needs and keep Client communications and information in one place. The goal last year was to keep an average of 85%, and an average of 86.3% was achieved. 

TopSpot is unique in that we ask to tour facilities to understand our client’s businesses and how they operate. Our Team members learn to “talk shop” with manufacturers, roofers, etc., and learn the jargon necessary to connect with Clients to create great digital marketing. This was brought back last year and is a big priority for 2023, with a goal to see as many Clients in-person as possible. We also hold monthly webinars to educate Clients on changes in digital marketing such as platform updates like Google Analytics 4 as well as workshops to explore our propriety form tool and other tools.

“When you have companies say, ‘Look what you did for us’, ‘You cared to understand who we were’, or ‘You got us into a space we didn’t even know we could be in’. Then you hear how they can hire more people, get insurance for them, and send kids to college. You’re getting this feedback and realize what we are doing is so meaningful. That fuels us every day.”

• Anita Valdez

TopSpot is honored to be a part of the US Search Agency Community and be recognized alongside other great search agencies across the country. It is a great platform for agencies of all sizes and specialties to showcase their capabilities to the digital marketing community at large. Good luck to all the nominees and the businesses represented, and we look forward to hearing the results in October.